routlaw

I agree with @Patriot and if I were going to paint mine it would be perhaps a pearlescent white the main reason not having to deal with the gel coat issues. From my experience and others may disagree maintaining a painted vehicle is much easier than maintaining a gel coat over fiberglass.

@ScubaRx you beat me to it. I also suspect a painted Oliver might be easier to maintain vs the gel coat which constantly needs waxing, ceramic coatings etc. No doubt it would also cost a good sum of money to have one painted properly too.

Yes indeed about half days drive from Bozeman. Hardly worth the effort but thanks for the heads up.

@gbergh unfortunately we don't have a Love's anywhere near us. Have seen them on road trips in the past and filled up more than once. Don't think they are even in Montana. I suspect based upon the YouTube videos I've seen to replace struts on the F150 there might be quite a bit more work to the install. It requires (apparently) a significant amount of disassembly. Thanks for the info though

Hopefully I don't come off as being too argumentative on this discussion but attached is the instruction sheet for adjusting the lift on the 5100 series Bilstein shocks. Also including a link from Shock Surplus with videos discussing this attribute. IOW's these shocks are indeed ride height adjustable. Bilstein makes these shocks now for just about every truck on the market including Tacomas so I have no doubt they also have them for RAM trucks as well. The 4600 series and 5100 Series are different in this regard too. In order to jump up to a completely assembled coil/shock combo one has to move up to the 6112 shock-strut assembly to the tune of just under a grand for parts alone. However that shock is designed and built for serious off-roading with a much larger diameter tube compared to the 5100 series. In the meantime regarding my initial post on this thread, still haven't found a local who can do this install any less expensive so far but understand too the cost of living in my area is and has become very expensive. Minimum wage locally is $20-$22 per hour and thats just for flipping burgers and stuffing tacos. Average home prices are hovering just under a million now. We didn't pay anywhere near that but have been living here for almost 50 years too. In the meantime still exploring the options. Hoping anyone else seeking to do this finds this info helpful. https://www.shocksurplus.com/products/bilstein-5100-monotube-gas-shocks-24-239394

They do, but actually it’s 4 settings. As I understand it this is unique for Bilsteins and no other shock by itself has this capability.

@jd1923 good job. I like the way you installed this well below the awning attachments. The original was nestled just below and touching those brackets which in turn creates a huge debris mess almost impossible to clean out. As pliable as this trim piece seems to be just curious if you considered with turning those end corners downward slightly to facilitate the flow of water out?

The 5100 Bilstein rear shocks do not create a lift, only the fronts will do that. I paid around $500 for the set of fronts and rears at Shock Surplus. However when install the Road Active Suspension this device does raise the rear about an inch and half or so.

Just watched a YouTube video where a guy was changing the front shocks on an older rusted out F150. The compressor he used was no light weight affair, really large massive floor standing affair. He took a lot of stuff apart that seemed a bit unnecessary, easy for me to say not having done it. Regardless quite the job. Also called a couple local mobile mechanics and their estimate really wasn't much different than what I had already been quoted. At this point will probably just stick with what I already have scheduled and bite the bullet. The one thing I was warned about for those contemplating these types of repairs, make sure the top plate bearing is also replaced at the same time of the shock.

Everything is like this in this neck of the woods. The growth in the area has been explosive over the past several years, got worse during covid with apparently no end in sight. Existing labor and services can't keep up with the demand. Still looking for an alternate shop nothing so far. Thanks

Have read this many times regarding the danger of dealing with spring compressors and why I didn't want to go down this route. Too late at this point for complete assemblies since I already have the shocks on hand. The complete assembly set was quite expensive though. Thanks Have a note into one of the mobile repairs outfits locally but no call back yet, still waiting on that.

Wow, lucky man. Mine was a bit messier and more difficult than that.

Just did this myself earlier in the summer. Mine was also pretty much dry rotted and ugly. It's a job make no mistake. Have yet to install rain gutters over the windows though, probably should do that soon.

Thanks for all the helpful information @jd1923 . Interesting it was my understanding one has to have a spring compressor in order to remove and install front shocks into their respective coils/struts. Have not checked into mobile mechanics, will do this evening. Understood on all else. We do have an awesome alignment shop or two here but they are weeks if not months out, seriously. Thanks again. Rob

Ordered a set of Bilstein 5100 shocks front and rear from Shock Surplus for my F150. Installed the rears myself, no issues. Finally got around to calling locally for the front installs since it requires special equipment that I don't have or want to have. Most shops wouldn't entertain the notion of customer supplied parts and the ones that did provided quotes of almost $1K with front end alignment included. The other shop was 1.5 months out. For those of you who might have gone through the same, does this price seem a bit steep? Granted I do live in an area with very high cost of living, still the price was a surprise. Made the appointment anyway for a couple of weeks from now. Suffice it to say getting anything done in this area requires a lot of patience due to the growth. In the meantime wishing the best for all the folks back east dealing with hurricanes and the aftermath. The destruction and devastation is terrible. Good luck getting through these rough times. Thanks

Likewise just went through this again yesterday, however this time around in order to prevent a projectile shooting out from water pressure I stood to the side with thumb firmly pushing against the large nut while slowly rotating with the other hand. This did allow for a much more controlled release and by far less mess, and other than my shoes I stayed dry. I had never noticed the white flakes until yesterdays procedure. What’s up with that?

Excellent upgrade and mod, well done!

I hope @DavePhelps doesn't mind me hijacking his thread but reading through these excellent and informative post has me asking yet more questions which hopefully some of you will provide answers. Like Dave I am also on the verge of upgrading to LifePo batteries after 9 years with my 4 lead acid batteries that are showing weakness. 1. If never plugging into shore power upgrading to a Power Dynamics charger capable of lithium charging becomes unimportant, correct? 2. Why the need to upgrade to a more powerful PD charger just for Lithium batteries? If a 30 A charger worked for lead acid or AGM's why would it not provide enough current for LifePO? 3. My direct battery measurement is different than what my Blue Sky IPN Remote indicates, or stated more precisely a direct battery measurement with my multi meter at the terminals indicates 13.89 volts, while the IPN remote is reading 13.4 volts which is almost a half volt difference. Is it possible I have another issue rather than dying batteries? 4. I don't use an inverter, other than occasionally a small unit rated at 400 watts that directly plugs into the 12 volt ports. Probably will not add anything more in the future either. Put another way we tend to be lightweight campers requiring only lights, water pump etc. Am I missing something else worth considering? Like Dave I am considering the Epoch 300 amp but also looking at the SOK lineup too. Will Prowse and a few others have given high praise for all of the SOK batteries. Great price points too. Thanks

It's my understanding the general consensus is the RAS is much better than air bags, but not having tried air bags can't make any claim for this. Can't recommend it enough as well as the Bilstein shocks but also hear the Fox shocks are awesome to but the investment on those can be as high as $2-$3K ± . My gut feeling is most if not all new trucks have at best mediocre shocks from the factory.

I have an F150 Super Crew and likewise the owners manual makes similar statements, anything over 5000 lbs and 500 lbs tongue weight should use a WDH. Another way to look at it is look at the max tow and tongue weight then cut it in half without a WDH. I will add this, over the last couple of weeks I have installed new rear shocks, Bilstein 5100's and the Road Active Suspension System to my truck. The difference is not subtle! Better ride, better comfort, better handling, and better load carrying ability and stability with these new products. I would describe the ride as taut but smooth. There is a certain (probably modest) amount of weight distribution with a properly installed RAS setup. How much I do not know and the company does not make statements addressing this spec. Due to the rear height increase with the RAS system it was necessary to reconfigure my truck ball hitch (lower) to properly accommodate the Oliver hitch. Took the rig out for a short spin this afternoon, parked it a couple of times to measure how level the E2 was with new kits and still the the nose is down by an average of about 3/4's of an inch. Not bad, but probably does indicate the need for the Andersen WDH for those who want absolute level while towing. I should also add the tanks were empty and trailer only partially packed, with nothing in the truck bed. Hope this helps.

Must be something with that Texas heat, took me a few hours of really messy work. You are lucky.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Was able to remove it with bug and tar remover but still a lot of messy work. Will do a final clean, polish/wax later today if it doesn’t rain. Not sure why Oliver ever made the decision to install these things in the first place. All mine ever did was create a damn for debris and organic detritus. Thanks again.

The white neoprene rubber (I think) gasket that is installed just below the awning to sort of but not really divert water on my Elite II was deteriorating and rotting significantly. This afternoon I finally decided to take the thing off which has now left a long line of black rubber where it was glued down. I have tried Acetone, denatured alcohol, naphtha, and mineral spirits to loosen or dissolve the remainder none of them worked. Its my understanding heat guns will only harden neoprene and it doesn't sound like a safe method around FG anyway. For those of you who have removed this gasket just curious what method you used to remove the final residue? Thanks

Some of you might have seen my recent post on another thread, Shake Rattle and Roll, regarding items including screws etc coming loose while towing. My situation had become considerably worse as previously stated in regards to the entire set of drawers and associated hardware with the kitchen cabinet drawers. Cutting to the chase I had to replace all of the soft close glides for a litany of reasons which I will detail below then rebuild and redesign the entire drawer setup and arrangement. Some of the glides had corroded severely preventing their ease of use, and in other cases the boxes themselves were made in what can only be described as sloppy construction, inconsistent sizes, and most of them considerably too small for their respective cabinet openings allowing for the glides to come completely out of, or off their rails. If this isn't enough the cabinets themselves were built out of square, out of plumb, and not parallel from front to back or side to side. Hopefully this will provide help to those who might be having some of the same issues. Let me know if you have any questions be glad to help if I can. For starters attached are some photos of the errant issues we were having. Image below illustrates how poorly this set of drawer glides were installed which of course imposed a closed drawer that pointed downward, top portion closed while the bottom tilted outward. The red arrow on this drawer points to the corroded glide rail. This is the worst example in all fairness. closer detail that illustrates the above perhaps better. In the photo below you can see where these drawers were only stapled together and with no glue anywhere. To make matters worse the cheap plywood used for the plastic face frame inserts was never treated for moisture and thus over a period of time would expand contract then warp and pull away from the drawer box itself. The only method for installing these drawer faces was nothing more than caulk, no screws nothing to hold them in place over a period of time in different weather or humidity patterns. Effectively each of the faces had warped convexly as seen in this photo. This is an example of the old drawer boxes once the plastic fronts were removed with scrapers, pry bars and chisels. Note how the 4 inch drawer is 1 inch longer than the 6 inch drawer, and this was consistent throughout for no discernible reason that I could determine. All of my new drawers are a full 20 inches long with the exception of the 12 inch drawer that mounts under the kitchen sink otherwise it would collide with the sink drain, probably not a good idea. Most but not all of these plastic face mounts to the drawers are cracked severely or in some cases mild cracks as illustrated below. Eventually I will replace all of the drawer faces with something else in the future and just be done with the cheap 1/2 inch plywood glued/caulked into these plastic cavities. Now for the rebuild. Below you can see where the drawer positioning is much different. Rather than the 4 inch depth drawer to 6 inch depth drawer, then back to the 4 inch on the bottom row it seemed to make much more sense to do two rows of 4 inch drawers (with 6 inch face fronts) then install the 6 inch drawer with 8 inch front on the bottom row. In addition the upper right drawer as originally installed was only 12 inches deep much like the drawer that mounts underneath the sink. This made no sense to me because there was plenty of room for a full 20 inch drawer to easily slide beneath the cooktop stove. In order to make sure there would not be an overheating issue I ran the both burners for a period of time with my hand touching the bottom of the stove. Never even got warm. It is important to note this stove is built with a second dead air space layer. This allows for much better usage of kitchen tools and storage. Details from the rebuild. Basically I used Kreg Pocket Hole jigs and screws to build the boxes but also used reinforcements below with right angle corner hardware and ran a bead of hot wax glue across all of the underside of the boxes/drawers. Materials were half inch baltic birch plywood, with 1/4 inch birch plywood bottoms dado'ed into the sides and fronts. Closeup detail of hardware and messy hot wax glue. I also used a small painters palette knife to spatula the glue while still hot and pliable further into each joint. It was fairly easy to run the heat gun for 6-8 inches of glue line then press the glue further into position, then start on the next 6-8 inches. Pocket holes can be seen in the photo below. To mount the face fronts back onto each drawer I used 3/4 inch Big Timber screws that are self tapping, however in order make sure they were solid each drawer front was clamped to its respective drawer during installation of screws. As you can see each screw is counter sunk as well allowing for a deeper bite. Note didn't want to glue them on in addition to screws knowing I would eventually replace the fronts with completely new materials. The photo below shows two sets of new drawer glides installed properly that being with front of the glide recessed approximately 1/16th of an inch as illustrated by the red circles, not the full 1 inch as originally installed by Oliver. By installing the glides so far back into the cavity of the cabinet boxes the glides would never fully come to their closed positions. Not sure why the water hoses to the kitchen faucet were installed to the front of the rear cabinet brace at the back as seen in this photo. There was plenty of room to route those blue and red lines between the hull and cabinet which I just might do the future. It is also worth pointing out the opening space on the plastic trim for the cabinets is about 1/4 to 3/8 th's different from right to left side which translates into building each side with different width drawers. The space allowed for this type of drawer glide accommodates 1/2 inch on either side for a total of 1 full inch smaller width drawer compared to the cabinet opening. This is and always has been a tight specification. The original drawers were off by at least 1/4 inch or more. View from the basement. Honestly I have no idea how the entire assembly of the kitchen cabinet drawers even stay in place going down the road. Boxes are screwed together with 3 drywall screws and sort of situated into these pockets made of 2-3 inch depth plywood. I have no idea how those pockets are held in place and it doesn't appear there is any support at the back of the cabinets as they set hovering over the wheel wells by perhaps half an inch. Would love to hear a more informed opinion about this. A few finished results installed. Some of you might see that instead of implementing 4 drawers at 4 inches I ended up building 4 inch on top, 5 inch in the middle, then the standard 6 inch for the bottom drawer. Increasing the middle 4 inch to 5 inch depth provides a bit better depth of space while still allowing plenty of adequate space between each drawer.

This is not necessarily true, when we picked up our Oliver E2 March of 2015 (#70) tires were at 50 or perhaps 55 PSI certainly not 80 PSI. For the first few years we ran them also at 50 but in the last 2 to 3 years have kept them at 45 on normal paved roads. I certainly agree though running them at 80 makes for a very hard ride.